Palin Mines for More Time to Withhold Papers
Documents with information about Sarah Palin’s involvement in tossing out a measure against toxic mine pollution may stay secret until after the election. Delay tactics, anyone? But Alaskans for Clean Water want to know the truth, and are requesting immediate release of the information that could show yet again that Sarah Palin took the side of profit-making business over the environment.
What’s in question is if Palin and the Alaskan administration are using illegal stalling measures to release the documents. Palin’s press secretary denied it, saying the Palin camp is swamped right now with document requests. This is probably true, given all the rumors and new allegations flying against Palin in environmental matters, but things like this can only mean we may not be getting the full picture of Palin before the election.
The documents concern Palin’s opposition of a measure to lower the release of toxic waste from large mines into watersheds that people and salmon use. Although not explicitly stated, the Washington Times reports that it is targeted toward Pebble Mine’s possible impact on the Bristol Bay salmon fishery.
Said the NYTimes, “Scientists and former state and federal biologists warn that toxic residue from the project, known as Pebble Mine, would irreparably harm a centuries-old salmon fishing industry that employs 17,000 and hauls in $100 million annually.”
>More on Sarah Palin and mining
Palin announced her opposition a few days before Alaska’s Aug. elections, and the measure was effectively killed. Alaskans for Clean Water want to know, however, what she said behind closed doors about the measure. The Alaska Public Offices Commission is already looking into whether the governor was “improperly biased” against the measure in the first place.
This all comes despite the fact that while she was campaigning for governor, she announced her love for Bristol Bay: “I am a commercial fisherman; my daughter’s name is Bristol. I could not support a project that risks one resource that we know is a given, and that is the world’s richest spawning grounds, over another resource.”
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The Pebble Mine Project and Alaska Initiatives 4
Photo Credit: sictransitdiesoccident at Flickr under a Creative Commons License
